If only NCAA D-1 football can provide revenue to support a D-1 athletic program, please explain the following examples: UC-Santa Barbara, Long Beach State, Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine (I think they had football), Cal State L.A (my cousin's ex-hubby QB'ed their last team in the 60s before downgrade and elimination) ALL dropped their D1-A football programs nearly thirty years ago (50 for CSLA) and never looked back. I think all of these schools provide the same number or more athletic programs than Akron. I maintain MAC membership alone forces UA to maintain this athletic albatross.
Edit: UC-Irvine never had a football program. I was thinking of Cal State Northridge (CSUN) which dropped football at the same time as UCSB, LBSU and CSUF.